Benividaz

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 PAUL LEWIS, No. 2:24-cv-2382 AC P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 BENIVIDAZ, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff is a state inmate who filed this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 18 without a lawyer and has paid the filing fee. Pending before the court is screening of plaintiff’s 19 First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) and a request for status. ECF Nos. 6, 8. 20 I. Statutory Screening of Prisoner Complaints 21 A. Legal Standards 22 The court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief against “a 23 governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity.” 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). A 24 claim “is [legally] frivolous where it lacks an arguable basis either in law or in fact.” Neitzke v. 25 Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325 (1989). The court may dismiss a claim as frivolous if it is based on 26 an indisputably meritless legal theory or factual contentions that are baseless. Id. at 327. The 27 …